• As many as 43 eminent artists were presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship and Sangeet Natak Awards for 2018 while the Lalit Kala Akademi’s Fellowship and National Awards for 2021 were given to 23 people by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu in a joint ceremony.

• Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are national honours bestowed by the government on performing artists as well as teachers and scholars in the field of performing arts. The awards were given out in the categories of music, dance, and theatre. In addition, one category was reserved for traditional, folk, and tribal dance, music, theatre and puppetry.

• An award each was also given for overall contribution and scholarship in Performing Arts.

• In addition, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, Sattriya dancer Jatin Goswami, Sonal Mansingh and Thiruvidaimarudur Kuppiah Kalyanasundaram were given fellowships for their contribution to the field of dance.

• Among the 13 honoured for music are Hindustani vocalists Mani Prasad and Madhup Mudgal, santoor player Tarun Bhattacharya, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar for sarod, and Carnatic vocalists Alamelu Mani and Malladi Suribabu.

• Bharatanatyam dancer Radha Sridhar, Mohiniyattam dancer Gopika Varma, Kuchipudi dancer Ramalinga Sastry, are among the 10 dancers who got the award.

• Among the eight theatre artistes who have been conferred the award are Suhas Joshi and Teekam Joshi for acting, Rajiv Naik and Laltluangliana Khiangte for playwriting, and Sanjay Upadhyay for direction.

• Musician Malini Awasthi (folk music), Gazi Khan Barna (folk music), Arjun Singh Dhurve (folk dance) Mohammad Sadiq Bhagat (folk theatre), Anupama Hoskere (string puppetry), Hem Chandra Goswami (mask making) are awardees in the other categories.

• Diwan Singh Bajeli was awarded in the field of overall contribution in performing arts. 

• Sculptor Himmat Shah, reputed painters and artists Jyoti Bhatt and Shyam Sharma were awarded the prestigious Lalit kala Akademi fellowship.

Sangeet Natak Akademi

• Sangeet Natak Akademi, the apex body in the field of performing arts in the country, was set up in 1953 for the preservation and promotion of the vast intangible heritage of India’s diverse culture expressed in forms of music, dance and drama. 

• Sangeet Natak Akademi is an autonomous body of the ministry of culture and is fully funded by the government for implementation of its schemes and programmes.

• The functions of the Akademi are set down in the Akademi’s Memorandum of Association, adopted at its registration as a society on September 11, 1961. 

• The registered office of the Akademi is at Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi. 

• The management of the Akademi vests in its General Council. The chairman of the Akademi is appointed by the President of India for a term of five years. 

• The Akademi coordinates and collaborates with government and art academies of different states and Union Territories, as also with major cultural institutions in the country.

Two constituent units of Sangeet Natak Akademi are dance-teaching institutions. They are:

i) The Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy (JNMDA) at Imphal. JNMDA has its origin in the Manipur Dance College established by the government in April 1954. Funded by the Akademi since its inception, it became a constituent unit of the Akademi in 1957.

ii) Kathak Kendra in Delhi. It is one of the leading teaching institutions in Kathak dance. Located in Delhi, it offers courses at various levels in Kathak dance and in vocal music and Pakhawaj.

Besides the constituent units, the Akademi presently has five centres:

i) Kutiyattam (Koodiyattam) Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram for preserving and promoting the age-old Sanskrit theatre of Kerala.

ii) Sattriya Kendra, Guwahati for promoting the Sattriya traditions of Assam.

iii) North-East Centre, Guwahati for preserving the traditional and folk performing art traditions of north-eastern India.

iv) North-East Documentation Centre, Agartala for festival and field documentation in the northeast. 

v) Chhau Kendra, Chandankiyari for promoting the Chhau Dances of eastern India.

• The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are the highest national recognition conferred on practising artists. The Akademi also confers Fellowships on eminent artists and scholars of music, dance and drama. In 2006, it instituted annual awards to young artists – the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar. 

• The Akademi’s Fellowship (Akademi Ratna) carries a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh and the Akademi Puraskar (Akademi Awards) carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

• The Akademi’s archive, comprising audio and video tapes, photographs, and films is one of the largest in the country and is extensively drawn upon for research in the performing arts.

Lalit Kala Akademi

• Lalit Kala Akademi is the government’s apex cultural body in the field of visual arts in India.

• It was set up by the government on August 5, 1954 and was registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, in March, 1957. 

• The organisation functions through its General Council, Executive Board and other committees.

• It is an autonomous body, which is fully funded by the ministry of culture. It has substantial independence in making decisions related to national and international exhibitions, events and providing financial assistance to artists and art organisations.

• The Akademi is involved in a wide range of activities related to promoting Indian art and artists through programmes and strategic partnerships.

• It aims to foster cultural contacts within the country and also with other countries, through art exhibition, exchange of personal and art objects, etc.

• Its headquarters is situated in New Delhi and has centres in Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Garhi (New Delhi) and sub-centres at Shimla and Patna.

• A major art promotional activity of the Akademi is to provide studios to Indian and international artists who work in various disciplines of art such as sculpture, graphics, ceramics and paintings.

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